The present invention relates to an apparatus for unloading stacked sheet material from a supporting surface, and in particular to such an apparatus having a ram and a sweeper mounted on the ram for pushing a stack of sheet material cleanly off a pallet.
In the container manufacturing industry it is common to automate the processing of flat corrugated sheets into cartons by running the sheets through automatic folding machinery. Generally the feed stock for such processing machinery comes in the form of stacks of sheet material on pallets.
Because of friction between the lowermost sheets of the stack and the surface of the pallet it is difficult to remove the entire stack cleanly from the pallet. Further, since pallets vary in size and thickness it is difficult to align the pallets for automatic removal of the stacked sheets.
Accordingly, it is the general object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for unloading stacked sheet material cleanly from a supporting surface such as a pallet.
Another object is to provide such an apparatus which will not disturb the stack of sheets during unloading.
Yet another object is to provide an apparatus which is automatically adjustable for various sizes and thicknesses of pallets.
A further object is to provide automatic positioning or alignment for the pallets so that the stacks of sheets will all be discharged in substantially the same position.
Another object is to provide for sequential unloading of multiple stacks from the same pallet.
A still further object is to provide for the emptied pallets to be discharged in substantially the same position.
Other objects and advantages and the manner in which they are accomplished will become apparent in the following specification and claims.